At whole book level

Read the title.

Look at the contents page.
Read the blurb if it has one.
Read the introduction.
Flick through the book to see if
there are any pictures, charts,
tables, maps or graphs that look
interesting or useful.
At chapter level
Look at the headings and
subheadings.
Read the frst and last sentence in a paragraph the frst sentence is often
the topic sentence, which sets out what the paragraph will tell you in more
detail.
Dont read every word or every sentence let your eyes skim over the text
looking for key words.
Look for words that are highlighted, written in italics or bullet-pointed.
Skimming is a fast-reading technique.
Skimming helps you to get the big picture of what a
book or text is about.
You can use skimming to decide whether a book is
useful for study or if you think a book interests you for
personal reading. Here are some things to look for.
Skimming
Sheena Cameron 2009. This page is reproducible for classroom use.